1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fabrication method and fabrication apparatus of a group III nitride crystal substance extensively employed in substrates and the like of various semiconductor devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to a fabrication method of a group III nitride crystal substance including a method for effectively cleaning deposits adhering in a reaction chamber during growth of a group III nitride crystal substance, and a fabrication apparatus employed in this fabrication method.
2. Description of the Background Art
Group III nitride crystal substances such as GaN crystal substances and AlN crystal substances are extremely useful for the substrate of various semiconductor devices such as a light emitting element, electronic element, semiconductor sensor, and the like. The fabrication method of a group III nitride crystal substance includes various types of vapor deposition such as hydride vapor phase epitaxy (hereinafter, also referred to as HVPE), metal-organic chloride vapor phase epitaxy (hereinafter, also referred to as MOC), metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (hereinafter, also referred to as MOCVD), and the like (for example, refer to the pamphlet of International Publication No. WO99/23693).
All of the aforementioned vapor deposition methods cause deposits formed of polycrystalline group III nitride to adhere to the interior of the reaction chamber, particularly at the crystal growth zone and the raw material introduction zone, when a group III nitride crystal substance is grown on the underlying substrate in the reaction chamber. Such deposits must be removed since they may prevent stable supply of raw material, and/or be mixed into the group III nitride crystal substance that is to be grown subsequently.
In order to remove such deposits, the reactor tube constituting the reaction chamber was discarded after one use, or the interior of the reaction chamber had to be rinsed with solution such as phosphoric acid, sulfuric acid, sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, and the like. Usage of a disposable reaction tube is disadvantageous since the reaction tube is expensive and a pre-baking step (a heating process of the reaction chamber prior to crystal growth; the same applies hereinafter) is required, leading to degradation in fabrication efficiency and increase in fabrication cost. If the interior of the reaction chamber is rinsed with solution such as phosphoric acid, sulfuric acid, sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, and the like, the atoms of at least any of phosphorus, sulfur, sodium, potassium, and oxygen included in the solution will remain in the reaction chamber to be mixed in the crystal to be grown subsequently.